Weird News - Magicians battle over dueling conventions

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Magicians battle over dueling conventions

BLACKPOOL, England (UPI) -- Two British magicians who contend the country's main magic convention is too old-fashioned have angered organizers by setting up an alternative event.

Collin Richardson and Geoff Pescud said they started planning the Southern England Magic Convention after concluding the 56-year-old Blackpool Magicians' Convention, which attracts 3,500 practitioners of the illusion arts annually, is stuck in the last millennium, The Daily Telegraph reported.

However, the duo raised the ire of Blackpool organizer Derek Lever, 70, by scheduling their event for Jan. 31. The traditional tribute to magic trickery is set for Feb. 20. Lever sent a letter to convention regulars noting the "barring clause" that bans exhibitors from setting up shop at any British convention in the five-week period leading up to Blackpool.

"Dealers who have just been seen at another convention are no longer an attraction," Lever wrote. "To try and spoil what we have is pointless and silly. They decided to have a go and they are using any tactics they can at the moment as they are in panic mode."

Richardson and Pescud said they are fighting back with appeals to the Board of Trade, Trading Standards-Competition Commission and European Commission to intervene on behalf of their convention.

"We are 400 miles from Blackpool and we can only take 1,400 people. A lot of the people coming to ours would never go to Blackpool," Richardson said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 09/02/2008

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